Dear cris (and everyone), 

I thought I was the only one with a hearing issue... The room was maybe too noisy, but I sincerely (but lightly) said that I thought you, cris, had committed to RUN the program (when I knew that you hadn't quite, officially, even slid your hat into the carnival ring. And we all know by now it's not CW's decision to make, finally).
  
Or: I was in some alternate reality in relation to whatever came out of my mouth: I was certainly THINKING "run" not "wreck," in any case! (I'm sure of that, at least). I do now realize the tenor of the conversation after that, which somewhat mystified me at certain points, is much clearer now...

If nothing else, this seems to have had the good effect of provoking this response from you. It illustrates the lively ideas and energy that I have come to expect from you. I may not have been certain that you wanted to take this on--but I certainly think you are quite qualified to do the job, and improve it in any ways that are/become practically possible. So, I think you should do this, even if I wasn't sure before how serious you were about being willing to actually do it. I meant to lightly question how spontaneous and unthought-through that gesture to consider being director was. This email below fully answers that, I think.

I often find myself speaking to the quizzical looks on the faces of my auditors, because I've responded to what I THOUGHT they said, but guessed wrong. I hope my words didn't strike some deep hidden counter-desire in you about the program. I really doubt that--our conversation became one in the spirit of the Pranksters in the room, I think!

Anyway, thanks for these considerations, come what may. 

David

________________________________________
From: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of cris cheek [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 1:24 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: CW Director

HI everybody,

our discussion regarding how to proceed with the Creative Writing directorship yesterday felt truncated and might use a little further clarification, from me, especially since i slid my hat into the ring.

It does seem only best, under all circumstances, that the position is one which rotates around the tenured cohort. I think we all agreed on that. We need to decide, in advance of any other decisions, whether to have the rotation be a two or a three year term.

Beyond that, I thought i'd say a few things about what i might bring to the post, were i to have the chance to do it this time round. I do so because David was joking with me last night at the Pranksters film about how he thought he had heard me say that i was prepared to wreck the program. I'm setting the record straight, just in case others heard something similar.

First off I like the program. We have a lively and balanced and supportive cohort. It would be terrific to be able to hire another one or two extra people to expand what we can offer and deliver, but whilst the global climate might be warming, the climate for new university hiring into conventional models has cooled. We have a very healthy number of majors in CW now and there is no reason that those numbers cannot grow. Four hundred and twenty is already a large program though and we are justifiably proud of it. We command respect in the English Department and the College of Arts and Sciences. We are seen to be energtic and good citizens around campus and we collaborate well with our peer cohorts and with other programs. Creative Writing is a significant contributor to the emergent Humanities Center.

Eric has done a terrific job and deserves our thanks for working so diligently on behalf of the CW program for so long. I see the effort that he puts into keeping us on all on an even keel on a weekly basis.

My work as the Altman Fellow has brought me onto campus and into my office and into other offices as never before. I'm getting to the point at which i am seeing myself on and around campus four to five days and having an indian summer of the corridors. I am not considering submitting ARA applications should i have the opportunity to be the director. I would commit myself to doing the work that the program already requires and make myself available in my office four to five days a week.

I would be keen to grow the online presence of our Creative Writing community and our events. The S(W)OP  . . south west ohio poets  . . informational network that Cathy and i have been running over the past couple of years is one model that could expanded for CW at Miami University more generally. I'm keen to see us liaising still further with our peer institutions in Cincinnati where, between us, we have strong ties with faculty and students. I think we could talk more about enhancing our regional presence through events off-campus too.

I'm keen to see our emergent initiative around short forms take flight, though the festival we have begin to talk about as well as possibly through an attendent publication (some kind of primer of short forms in which we could all have a hand perhaps).

In respect of potential interdepartmental initiatives I'm already affiliated to (A)IMS and have been asked to affiliate to Comparative Media Studies and see tremendous opportunities for developing cross-listed curricula initiative in both those directions, in addition to working on what the lo-res MFA through SFA might bring.

My sense of the lo-res MFA in Creative Writing is that Eric has done a lot of great spade work and it would be a shame not to take it at least a couple of stages further in terms of what can make it a distinctively Miami University program and interface powerfully with our current MA program. I'd certainly be prepared to work on that.

There is more that i can say and i have other ideas that i would keen to bring to an initial discussion stage, but i'll stop there for now.

I'd love to have the opportunity to do the work and have the energy to do so, right now. Keith made it clear that it's not for us to decide, but for Kerry Powell as chair. Still I wanted to let you have a glimpse of how i am feeling and thinking about the prospect.



Looking forwards,

cris